Constructing a Pistons “dream team” if they nailed every Draft
2011: Klay Thompson over Brandon Knight with the 8th pick
I’ve often said that the 2011 NBA Draft was a disaster for Detroit and one that still hurts more than a decade later.
There are a number of choices here, as the Pistons could have had Kemba Walker, Kawhi Leonard or a slew of quality role players. In fact, the back half of the first round of this draft was arguably better than the first half, so Detroit wasn’t the only team that missed big in this one.
I’m going with Klay because he is injured less often than Kawhi and love his fit with Cade Cunningham.
2012: Draymond Green over Andre Drummond with the 9th pick
Fans in Detroit did a lot of complaining in this era about the team not rebuilding and constantly ending up with middling picks in the lottery. But when you look at these drafts, there were great players available with all of these picks and the Pistons just didn’t find them.
Getting Andre with the 9th pick was actually a pretty good score here, as he was a two-time All-Star in Detroit and still holds a lot of team records for rebounding. In fact, there is an argument for just keeping this pick, but I’m going to bring Draymond home instead and deny the Warriors their dynasty.